The present invention relates generally to the field of industrial and household waste disposers and more particularly to water powered garbage waste disposers.
Prior art water powered or actuated waste disposers employ both a reciprocating and rotary motion to drive the active elements of the disposer. See for example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,700,178 and U.S. Pat. No. 3,788,564. However, prior art hydraulically driven disposers have employed impellers which have either been of a close vane or chamber type such as in U.S. Pat. No. 3,044,722 or have employed open paddle wheels such as in U.S. Pat. No 2,832,564. The closed chamber type impellers are characterized by a multiplicity of parts which have a tendency to stick, wear and degrade, thereby giving rise to a high frictional force and consuming a substantial fraction of the driving power to a mere operation of the impeller. Prior art open paddle wheel type impellers typically exhibit low power and have a tendency to stick or stop in a position wherein the driving water jet is not directly impinging upon an impeller paddle.
Centrifugally operated blade elements, used for grinding the waste material, are also well known in the art. However, each blade element is independently operated and no provision is made to distribute the centrifugal force among a plurality of blade elements to improve the reliability of their operation and to avoid sticking.
What is needed then is a configuration for an impeller which develops high power and torque, which may be started regardless of which position it is initially disposed, which is self-cleaning, has a low frictional force and is of simple and rugged design. What is further needed is an arrangement and configuration for abrasive blade elements by which the effective force available is uniformly distributed in order to increase the reliability of operation of the blades.